September 7, 2012

At right, an updated photo of mixed-martial artist Jarrod Wyatt, 29. See below for how he looked when he killed friend and sparring partner, 21 year-old Taylor Powell. He claims to have become convinced the devil was in Taylor Powell, which led him to cut a large hole in Powell’s chest to remove his heart, while also ripping out Powell’s tongue, supposedly while he was still alive.

A Northern California mixed-martial artist accused of ripping out his friend’s heart and removing his tongue while the two were on hallucinogenic drugs has pleaded guilty to murder and mayhem charges. Jarrod Wyatt of Crescent City agreed to a plea deal in which he will serve 50 years to life in prison, Del Norte County prosecutors said. His official sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 4.

Wyatt pleaded guilty to first-degree murder involving mayhem in the March 21, 2010, death of his sparring partner, 21-year-old Taylor Powell, prosecutors said.

“The earliest he’ll be able to see a parole board is 2062,” District Attorney Jon Alexander said. “We saved Taylor’s family the agony from reliving the incident at the trial.”

Wyatt’s attorney, James Fallman, said his 29-year-old client didn’t want to testify at trial and he didn’t want his family to testify.

“We looked for an agreement that would at least give him the opportunity to be paroled someday,” Fallman said. “As bad as 50 years to life sounds, it’s better than life without the possibility of parole.”

When police arrived that day at a home at the mouth of the Klamath River, they found Wyatt naked and covered in blood. He told the officers, ‘I killed him,’ and said he had cut out Powell’s heart and tongue, according to court documents.

The responding officer, police Sgt Elwood Lee, said Wyatt told him at the scene he saw the devil in Powell’s face and that ‘Satan was in that dude’. He cut an 18-inch hole in Powell’s chest, removed his heart, cut his tongue off and removed a majority of Powell’s face.

An autopsy determined the organs had been removed while Powell was still alive. He then cooked his friend’s body parts on the stove because he thought he was still alive and he needed to ‘stop the devil’.